Water quality and digestive cancer in Canada, with emphasis on British Columbia

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dc.contributor.authorNorie, Ian Hayen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T16:35:18Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T16:35:18Z
dc.date.copyright1989en_US
dc.date.issued1989
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Geography
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractEvidence is accumulating to support the view that variations in cancer incidence are often related to characteristics of the physical environment, namely its climate, geology, soils and water supply. This study explores possible links between Canada's and British Columbia's mortality from cancers of the digestive tract and certain aspects of drinking water quality. Two sets of data were used in this analyses. The first undertaken at the national scale, used published mortality and water quality data, at the census division level, The second British Columbia data set consisted of unpublished mortality data provided by the British Columbia Cancer Control Agency, and comprehensive water quality data collected and assembled by the author, at the school district level, Pearson's Correlation analyses of both study sets, suggests that copper or zinc found in potable water supplies have only a minor influence on carcinogeneses. In contrast, repeated negative correlations were found to occur at the national scale, between mortality from cancers of the digestive tract and calcium and magnesium levels in drinking water. Water hardness is also negatively correlated with these cancers, as has been postulated elsewhere in the literature. Such associations were not as evident at the provincial scale, although repeated negative links were found between these elements and cancer of the rectum. The biological and medical literature suggests various reasons why elevated levels of calcium and magnesium in drinking water might reduce cancer incidence in the lower digestive tract. Calcium for example, has been found to influence terminal differentiation in rat esophageal epithelial cells and may also convert fatty acids and free bile to insoluble soaps in the human colon. The roles of magnesium and lithium in reducing cancer mortality, if any, were less clearly understood.
dc.format.extent228 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19146
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleWater quality and digestive cancer in Canada, with emphasis on British Columbiaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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